Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Hollywood Comes to Mesa

A Chamber of Commerce day here in Arizona with plenty of sun and a high that reached mid 70's saw the Cubs take down the Rockies 9-8 in front of a Hohokam Stadium single game record crowd of 13,289.

After belting out 24 hits yesterday, the Cubs continued their hot hitting as the first 4 Cubs up to bat all got hits but on Alfonso Soriano's he was thrown out trying to stretch a single to a double. Milton Bradley has certainly heated up...now that he's playing. He was 3 for 4 with a single, double, and a line shot HR to left. Soriano was 2 for 2 with a double and 2 RBI's, he also is showing good patience, walking twice today. One unfortunate recent trend is Alfonso being thrown out trying to steal 2nd. I believe this has happened the last 3 times he's attempted to steal second, of course, spring is when you work these things out so hopefully he's just getting his timing down.

Chad Gaudin started today's game went two innings with mixed results. He walked a couple batters, struck out a couple, and would have given up only one run if not for an Aaron Miles error on pitcher Greg Smith's grounder. Neal Cotts and Kevin Gregg came in and combined for a 1-2-3 third inning. Jeff Samardzija trying to win a spot on the roster was not too effective allowing 2 runs on 3 hits and 1 walked batter in his lone inning pitched. Mike Stanton attempting an improbable comeback was even less effective and allowed 3 runs in an inning and won't be around much longer.

Paul Bako got a hit while pinch hitting today giving him 6 consecutive hits going back to Sunday's game. Derrek Lee showed his stellar glovemanship a couple times today, one snaring a wicked hop that was headed over his right shoulder. Reed Johnson who was playing rightfield in the final innings made a great running grab in the corner to help preserve the Cubs one run win. Ex-Cub Matt Murton started for the Rockies and went hit-less, another former Cub Mark Bellhorn struck out pinch hitting in the 9th with a tying run on 2nd to end the game.

If you noticed silence leading up to the starting lineups, it was because of the TBS TV show My Boys were filming and needed "quiet on the set", so we did not play our regular pre-game music, or announce some of the advertising. Mike Fontenot and Micah Hoffpauir are involved in the storyline of the My Boys episode, it was kind of fun to watch the crew do their work. My Boys deals with a female sports columnist in Chicago and the men in her life, and a sportswriter for a rival publication...I must confess I have never seen an episode. I did noticed a familiar face in the suite where the shows crew and actors watched today's game, the janitor from the TV show Scrubs. Our Hohokam organist George Kiefer may be shown in the episode filmed at Hohokam.

Tomorrow night is our Fergie and Friends Celebrity Baseball Game. I'm getting a bit apprehensive, as you know if you've been reading I'm playing in the game against Fergie and his talented former MLB stars. Of course our team the "Arizona All-Stars" will be managed by Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew and have a few talented athletes, former Phoenix Coyotes goalie Sean Burke and Olympian Amy Van Dyken, but the fact is we are woefully over-matched. As I was leaving the ballpark today, one of the Hohokam members said "I have you going 0 for 3 in tomorrow's game in the pool." The fact that they would even have a pool and that he has me going 0 for 3 does not bother me because it's all to raise money for charity.